


Replacing Robins

by River9Noble



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Because DC writers suck and someone other than Steph must take the fall, Dead Robins, F/M, I will live and die on this headcanon, It was all Leslie's fault, JaySteph - Freeform, Romance, She did not fake her death, Steph was kidnapped, Tumblr: Jason Todd Rare Pair Challenge, Tumblr: fyeahjaysteph
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:55:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26320765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/River9Noble/pseuds/River9Noble
Summary: Steph is back from the kidnapped dead, but her Robin has moved on. Maybe the best cure for a broken heart is replacing the Replacement...
Relationships: Past Stephanie Brown/Tim Drake - Relationship, Stephanie Brown & Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown/Jason Todd
Comments: 20
Kudos: 105
Collections: Focus on Female Characters, Jason Rare Pair Challenge





	Replacing Robins

**Author's Note:**

> I live and die on the headcanon that Leslie kidnapped Steph and faked her death without Steph's consent. Fuck canon, Steph would not do that to her friends and family.

"Steph!" Tim's shocked voice rings out, bright and happy and disbelieving and so overwhelmingly full of love and heartbreak when his once-dead girlfriend suddenly appears in his apartment before his eyes.

And he's surging forward and kissing her and Steph is so happy, _so happy,_ that she's home and escaped from Leslie's nightmare and she's kissing Tim back with all the pent-up longing and worry and brokenness and love of two years held captive in a once-ally's hands that tore her away from her boyfriend, her family, her friends, and let them think she'd died.

But Tim is suddenly pulling away from her lips, still shocked, but suddenly embarrassed and guilty and ashamed, too, and Steph feels the first icy sliver slide into her heart.

"I'm dating someone else," he mumbles, blinking furiously as his eyes become tortured.

The ice turns her soul numb.

"I thought you were dead," Tim says hoarsely, running both hands back through his hair in nervous agony.

He looks away.

Steph feels death's cold hands steal into her spirit like the spectre never could before, not even on Leslie's table or cut off from hope in Africa.

"It's serious?" Steph says dumbly.

Tim meets her eyes with tears slipping out of his and nods.

And she knows, just like that, that the boy she's loved since she was fifteen and pregnant with an older man's baby, has lost his virginity to someone else. Because Steph was supposed to be dead and Timmy had wanted to wait and Tim wasn't the kind of boy to have sex lightly and he won't be breaking up with her, whoever she is.

Steph knows this and she wishes she'd never come back to Gotham.

She doesn't mean to, but she's sobbing and Tim is crying, too, and he tries to hug her but Steph shoves him away.

"I can't - don't," she gasps out against the wound that's cut her deeper than Black Mask's drill.

"I'm sorry," Tim chokes out, sounding like he means it and he loves her and he's as broken up as she is, but what can he do?

It's Leslie's fault that Steph wasn't here.

And maybe, just a little bit, it's Batman's, too.

Because if he'd never fired her, Steph wouldn't have tried to prove herself to him, and she never - and Black Mask wouldn't have - and Leslie couldn't have - and Steph is staggering away from Tim and stumbling for the window.

"Why did you let us think you were dead?" Tim suddenly demands, grabbing for her wrist as she tries to go.

"Leslie kidnapped me," Steph says, and Tim's mouth falls open in an 'O' of horror.

"Don't - wait," he says, sliding his hand down her arm to gently grasp her fingers.

"I loved you more than anyone," he says and Steph wants him to shut up, she really does, because she can't hear this, not now, not when he's moved on and all she's wanted for two years is to get back to him.

"I still love you," Tim says in misery, "but I love Tam, too," he says, looking sick. "She was there for me, Steph, after you died -" he swallows.

Steph lets go of his hand and turns back towards the window.

"It's not your fault," she says quietly as she leaves.

Spoiler is sitting on a rooftop high above Crime Alley, knees folded up to her chest and arms wrapped around them as the sounds of drunks and broken glass and fights and shouting and gunshots fill the Narrows, and Spoiler doesn't move.

She hasn't been spoiling much of anything, lately, since her dad is dead and her life is already good and spoiled as it is. Steph puts her costume on anyway, though, to sit up night after night in the dark and stare into nothingness from the heights of the one neighborhood in Gotham where she knows that Red Robin won't show his face.

Steph hasn't talked much to the Bats after an initial greeting since getting back, except for Cass. B seems guilt-stricken but what good does that do her? Cass is beyond glad that Steph is alive, though, and haunts her best friend during daylight hours, dragging Steph out of her mom's house to coffeeshops and parks with mostly silent companionship, for which Steph is grateful.

But Steph is downright thankful that Black Bat leaves Spoiler to her own devices at night. Sometimes Steph needs to be alone with her grief, with the streets that understand her better than any family or boyfriend or ex-boyfriend or best friend or Bats ever could.

Her eyes aren't focused on the neon bar lights from the street below and she startles when there's a thump of feet next to her and a mechanical hiss.

Steph looks up just in time to see the arm coming down around her shoulders as the muscular silhouette drops down next to her.

"Welcome home, Dead Robin," Red Hood says gently, his eyes looking sad and understanding through his domino as he tugs her into his side.

Steph is surprised but she doesn't resist his hug and tucks her head into his shoulder as Jason's other arm comes up around her.

She's never met Jason before. Hell, he tried to kill Tim when he first came back from the dead. Steph thinks suddenly that she understands the impulse. If only Tam wasn't -

"I heard you got Replaced," Jason says softly and her eyes flick up to his and Steph doesn't think as she reaches up and pulls his mouth down to hers and kisses him, and Jason is startled but then he's kissing her back, and for the first time since hearing Tim's truth, a lick of flame snakes its way through the snow barrens of Steph's soul.

And as Steph hungrily leans into the kiss, she finds that she has feeling in other places, too, and it's such a relief to feel anything at all that her knees start moving without her brain's permission and she's straddling Jason's lap before she knows it, hands in his hair and tongue desperate and needy in his mouth and Steph remembers the why of Dean but Jason's pulling back like Dean never did.

"Babe, are you sure?" he asks her with some concern. "You're not in the best head space…"

"That's why I'm sure," Steph says back, praying he won't reject her, because she can't go back to the void of empty static, she can't and she doesn't know who else to turn to if Jason says no.

But Jason is chuckling quietly, and it's a nice sound, friendly and familiar like an explorer who's already learned the terrain, and not one that Steph expects to hear out of the murderous, dangerous, evil-goes-against-the-Bat Red Hood.

"You want to come back to my place?" he asks her.

Steph's smile lights her face up and feels out of place on her cheeks, but she nods. Jason smiles, too, and it does something funny to Steph's stomach.

He slides her off his lap and tugs them both to their feet, reaching down to grab his hood and putting it back in place before taking Spoiler's hand in his and leading her down the fire escape and a few streets over to his motorcycle.

Jason's smile doesn't only light up Steph's stomach when she's in his bed, and it's lazy and sweet and kind and Steph wants to drown in it so she fucks him like she never fucked Dean, like she wanted to fuck Tim, like she wants Jason to fuck her, and when she's shivering and coming and Jason's smile moves to his eyes instead of his lips, Steph decides right then and there that Dead Robins should stick together.

He makes her breakfast in the morning and she tells him he needs a waffle maker and he says he'll buy her one if she keeps coming around, so Steph tells him he'd better go to the store. Jason gives her a key along with his phone number and says to wait up if he's late that night, he has some business down at the docks, and when he comes home in the wee hours of the morning to find Steph in his bed he fucks her like he missed her, and Steph kisses him like she's glad it's his bed she's in.

Cass doesn't say much, but she never does. Steph knows she notices a change, though. They don't talk about Tim. Or Tam. Or the Bats. But Cass looks relieved at whatever it is she sees in Steph and she's Steph's best friend so Steph blurts it out a few days later in the park.

"I'm sleeping with Jason."

Cass looks her over and nods.

"Good," she says.

"He makes me feel better," Steph adds and Cass smiles.

"You, too. Him," she says and Steph's smile widens.

"You've seen him? You know?" she says and Cass giggles and nods, looking young and happy and like the girl she should have been instead of the assassin she was trained into.

Later that night, when Steph is cuddling Jason in bed, she rolls onto her side and props herself up on an elbow.

"Can I come out with you sometimes?" she asks him. "To patrol?"

Jason's eyebrow goes up.

"I'm not gonna let you kill people, Blondie," he says.

"I could still help," Steph says, walking her fingers over his chest and suddenly wondering if he's going to say no, to reject her like B did, or to shut her down like Tim always tried to do, because Jason looks thoughtful and just when Steph is starting to panic that he's trying to find a way to let her down easy, he says, "I'll have to get you some kevlar. That suit of yours is cute as fuck but it's flimsy as shit."

"You think my Spoiler suit is cute?" Steph beams at him and then Jason is laughing and kissing her and she's making him promise that her kevlar will be eggplant purple.

The next day he takes her out to an abandoned warehouse and starts teaching her how to shoot a gun and the next time Cass comes over, her friend is wearing sweats.

"Hood says we train," Cass explains, looking so damn happy that Steph is finally up to Spoilering again that Steph almost gets teary-eyed as she runs upstairs to put her workout clothes on before she and Cass head out to what is apparently Red Hood's secret gym, buried deep in the sublevels of a bombed-out mall from the seventies on the edge of the Narrows.

Jason's busy doing reps with free weights when the two girls walk in and the smile that lights up his face makes Steph's tummy flip.

"I figured Cass should help train you, too," Jason says with a grin. "Since she's more of a badass than B," he smirks, "and she can teach you how to keep your height and build from being a liability."

Cass snorts at that, making Steph laugh, and there's still an ache in her heart where Tim should have been, and still is, but the hole that B made when he fired her as Robin feels a tiny bit smaller.

And every night that Steph falls into Jason's bed sore from Cass's brutal training regimen, she sleeps soundly until he's waking her up in the wee hours with kisses and cute little happy noises that he would fiercely deny in daylight, and Steph starts to forget what her nightmares feel like.

And every afternoon that Jason helps her with her aim and corrects her shooting technique and invariably ends up with his arms around her waist and his lips in her hair and over her earlobe and brushing against her neck, Steph starts to remember what it's like to feel happy.

And the first night that Jason finally deems her ready for patrol, even though he insists that Cass tag along just in case, Steph starts to feel like maybe she's glad, after all, that she came back to Gotham.

"It's Dick's birthday on Sunday," Jason says to her one day in their apartment, which has become theirs only because Steph never sleeps anywhere else, but not because they've talked about it.

"Ok," Steph says, looking up from her phone to Jason. "Are you going over to the manor?"

"You could come with me, if you wanted," Jason says, and for the first time since Steph has known him, he sounds a little shy.

They've never talked about this thing between them, either, or feelings or futures or families.

"I could come…" Steph says slowly, "as… what?" she chickens out at the last second.

Jason holds her eyes with his as he moves over to sit beside her on the couch.

"Whatever you want to be," he says, reaching a hand up to tuck some hair behind her ear.

"Girlfriend?" Steph asks hesitantly and Jason nods.

Steph swallows.

"The person who's in love with you?" she half-whispers.

Jason's eyes light on fire.

"That, too," he says roughly, because there might be a few tears mixed in with his smile this time, but Steph doesn't mind at all, because it only makes his kiss sweeter and when he breaks it off to whisper, "I love you, Steph," then her smile has some tears, too.

The Replacements are already seated in the manor living room with Dick and Damian and Babs and Bruce when Cass leads Jason and Steph in. Tim sees them first and his eyes go wide. His sharp inhale of breath draws Tam's attention to him before she follows his gaze to Jason and Steph standing hand in hand on the threshold and a look of consternation crosses her face.

Bruce, for his part, looks equally shocked, if less audibly so.

"Steph!" he says with guilt-laced surprise as he stands. "I didn't know you were coming," he says, shooting a look at Cass, who shrugs.

"Tell Alfred," she says unconcernedly.

Is it her fault that Grandfather failed to also inform Father of Jason's plus one? Cass thinks not.

"It's good to see you," Bruce lies in his Brucie Wayne voice, giving Steph a hug that's mostly discomfort and air before adding equally insincerely, "And you, Jason."

But Dick has bounced up from his seat and is impatiently pushing Bruce aside so he can squeeze the breath out of both Jason and Steph in one massive group hug.

"I'm so happy you both came!" he squeals with completely delighted honesty, making Jason snort, although Steph smiles more indulgently.

"Happy birthday," Steph says, offering him their gift wrapped in Nightwing blue paper.

"Oh, you didn't have to get me anything!" Dick beams. "But I'm so excited you did!" he gushes as he takes the present, pulling the two of them over to sit on an empty couch with him instead of returning to his previous seat next to Damian and Babs.

Tim looks sick to his stomach but he manages to bravely get out, "Hi, Steph," and she says hi back before looking at Tam with a malingering misery that she can't quite hide.

Tam looks guilty and miserable, too, but it's not her fault, either, so when Tim appears too flustered and awkward to introduce them, Steph musters up the grace to say, "You must be Tam."

"Yeah," the other girl says, swallowing hard. "Hi," she mumbles.

"Hi," Steph says back as Jason's arm around her waist tightens in support.

"Can I open your present now?" Dick asks eagerly, and Steph shoots him a look of pure gratitude, because dear sweet Dick might come off like a frenetic puppy, but she knows that he's demanding their attention and breaking up the awkwardness on purpose.

"Sure, open it now," Jason says as Steph leans into him a little closer, keeping her eyes glued firmly on Dick and away from Tim and Tam. TimTam. The Replacements.

The heartbreakers. The cursed. The damned. The unfair. The -

"Ohmygosh!" Dick squees. "Look Bruce! Look, Dami!" he says, holding up Batman and Robin salt and pepper shakers with giant bubble heads.

Bruce growls low in his throat and Damian looks downright offended.

"Which is which?" Dick asks, tipping them over to test them out.

"Batman is the salty one," Jason says with a wink, "and Demon-brat is the pepper."

"Because pepper's more deadly," Steph adds quite seriously to Damian, who unscowls the tiniest bit.

"Not if you have high blood pressure," Tim quips out of old habit, and Steph swivels her head in surprise.

He blushes and looks down at the floor as Tam bites her lip and looks supremely uncomfortable. Tim squeezes his girlfriend's hand without looking up and Steph almost winces at the pain in her heart.

This wasn't how her life was supposed to turn out. Tim was her best friend, her soulmate, the love of her life…

But Jason?

Jason is unexpected tenderness and understanding wrapped up in the package of a fellow Dead Robin, and Jason gives Steph a trust and a respect for her abilities that Tim never once mustered up, and Jason has a snarky Narrows sensibility that warms and comforts Steph down to her bones like an old, tired sweatshirt that conforms to every inch of her frame, and Jason loves Steph quietly but unconditionally.

Despite her broken heart. Despite Tim. Despite being Steph's second choice.

"I love you," Steph whispers in Jason's ear before laying her head down on his shoulder, and she means it with every purple kevlar fiber of her new-and-improved Spoiler suit.

Which is still undeniably cute.

And the look in Jason's eyes is so full of love that Steph can't help but smile up at him, and Cass notices with contentment that Steph is more happy than sad, and that's all that Cass has wanted for her friend since Steph limped home from the dead, distraught and betrayed and hurt that none of the Bats had realized that she was alive and come to save her.

Cass feels guilty over that more than anyone, because Steph was _hers._ Her best friend who understood her like no other. And if Cass hadn't been so broken-hearted at Steph's death, maybe she could have put the clues together and looked for her and saved Steph before Tim had started dating Tam and maybe Steph would be completely happy now instead of mostly happy and some sad.

But then brother Jason would be as empty and lonely and sad as he had been ever since Cass has known him. Is it better for two members of the family to shoulder some pain and heartache if it results in another member of the family finding previously unknown happiness?

Cass does not know. She never would have caused her Steph sorrow, that much she does know. She would have fought for Steph to stay with Tim, if only she had known better.

But Cass is pleased, nonetheless, for Jason.

"I noticed Spoiler's been going out with Red Hood," Bruce has to say over lunch in a voice that indicates both disappointment and disapproval.

Steph finds herself chewing Alfred's delectably tender chicken salad with a force that would only be called for if Bruce had cooked it. But Jason is patting her thigh under the table and already answering B.

"She's my sidekick now," her boyfriend smirks at his father. "Dead Robins, amirite?" he says pointedly, and a hushed, tense silence falls on the table.

Bruce looks stuck somewhere between a glare and tears.

But it serves him right, Steph thinks viciously as she stabs a piece of potato salad with her fork. He didn't need to bring up Spoiler. It's his fault Steph's back to being Spoiler, anyway. If B hadn't fired her - if he'd finished training her as Robin - hell, if he'd _started_ training her as Robin, the right way, the way he'd done with Dick and Jason and Tim, instead of just using her…

"I train," Cass says cheerfully and with great pride, crashing into the crystallized silence.

Bruce remembers how to breathe and his inhale whooshes into his lungs as he stares down Cass.

"You're training Steph?" he growls slowly at his daughter.

Cass nods happily.

"Better," she says, patting her chest.

"I'm sure Steph's skills _are_ getting better under your tutelage," Bruce starts to say to Cass in a tone that brooks no good, but she snorts and shakes her head, interrupting him.

"She doesn't mean Steph is getting better," Jason says with his mouth full, which Alfred uncharacteristically doesn't chide him for. "Even though she is, obviously," Jason grins at his girlfriend.

"Cass means she's doing a better job than you did," Jason finishes explaining to Bruce, and the smile on his face is no longer affectionate.

Bruce stills, giving Jason a cold look back.

"Better," Cass repeats, smiling and nodding her head at Jason's translation as she blithely ignores Bruce's growing anger.

"Much better," Steph mutters darkly in agreement, turning her own blazing glare onto B, who finally shifts uncomfortably in his seat.

Tim and Tam glance at each other and look back down into their plates.

Babs looks peeved, hardly a surprise, Steph thinks; if Oracle had her way, Steph would be permanently benched, she's quite sure. Despite her fempower Birds of Prey which oh, by the way, Steph was never deemed good enough to join, even after her return to Gotham when she craved purpose and distraction.

Damian silently watches his family's interactions with a carefully neutral look on his face, not quite sure yet which side to take.

"Gee, Alfred, lunch is just delicious!" Dick says loudly. "Isn't it good, Babs?" he asks Oracle. "Mm, the grapes and celery really make the chicken salad pop, don't they, Damian?" Dick goes on, not waiting for Barbara's answer and forgetting that Damian's salad is vegetarian.

"And what herbs did you use in there, Alfred?" Dick asks eagerly, as if the answer would be the best birthday gift that he could possibly receive.

"There is some fennel, Master Dick, among other things," Alfred answers with some reluctance.

"Fennel!" Dick exclaims with an amazed sigh.

Bruce blinks first and looks away from Steph's accusatory gaze. Jason harrumphs under his breath and squeezes Steph's knee in secret support.

Steph sighs. Her eyes catch Tim's from across the table and he looks sad and sorry and torn because he hates being upset with Bruce, Steph knows this, but she also knows that Tim can't deny that B cut her loose so abruptly and hurtfully that it made her reckless. Which might have turned out differently had B been training her harder in the first place.

Or had Tim not always had the one-up in their relationship, knowing Steph's name but hiding his, and losing his temper when B went behind his back to reveal it. If Tim hadn't broken her trust, maybe she would have called him when B fired her. Hell, she probably wouldn't have become Robin in the first place if she wasn't trying to prove something to him, to B, to her father, to everyone after Tim quit.

Cass and Jason, though, they never make Steph feel like she has anything to prove to either of them. They believe in her. And they're realistic about her abilities without condemning her or judging her or doing anything other than tailoring their teaching to where she's at and where they want to take her.

And Steph loves them so, so much for it.

And it's different, being on equal footing from the start with Jason, Steph slowly realizes as Dick continues to prattle on about the food and his imminent cake and presents and birthday wishes. Jason is crazy talented from all of his training with not only Bruce but Talia, and he's crazy strong from the Lazarus Pit but also from his workouts, but Jason has never once, not ever, treated Steph as anything other than an equal.

Hell, that's how he first greeted her, calling her a fellow Dead Robin.

And Steph loves him so much it hurts, and she hadn't realized the depth of it until she was sitting in the middle of people who loved her and doubted her and used her, who manipulated her and lied to her and kept her at arm's length, even if one of them had been her soulmate and boyfriend and best friend who she could laugh and joke with over everything because they shared a wavelength.

Steph reaches her hand under the table and grips Jason's hand hard in hers.

Maybe your first love isn't always supposed to be your last love, Steph thinks as Jason's hand squeezes hers back and his thumb begins tracing patterns over her palm and she presses her face into his arm with a happy sigh and he kisses the top of her head.

When they're at home that night, Alfred's cake having thankfully made the day almost worth it, although Dick's genuine pleasure at their attendance was a close second, even if Jason had whispered in his brother's ear as they left that next year he and Steph would be taking him out without the rest of the family, Steph lays her head on Jason's chest in bed and looks up at him.

"What's up, Blondie?" he says, looking back down at her fondly.

"I love you more," she says and Jason stills.

"More than what?" he says cautiously.

"More than who," Steph corrects him. "More than him," she says and Jason's face goes all soft and wondrous as his hand comes up to stroke her face.

"Baby," Jason starts to say raggedly and has to stop.

But it's ok, because Steph is kissing him, and Jason is just getting really into it when Steph pulls back.

"Can I really be whatever I want to you?" she asks him curiously. "Like you said the other day?"

"Of course, Steph," Jason says in confusion.

"Like your forever girl?" Steph asks him, her hair falling down around his face. "And maybe one day your wife and your baby mama?"

"All of that," Jason says without hesitation and the happiness bubbling out of Steph fills Jason's lungs up until it comes pouring out of him in kisses that don't end until two Dead Robins are spent and asleep, nestled together like they've finally come home to roost.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> If you love JaySteph, check out @fyeahjaysteph on Tumblr for fic recs, fanart, and incorrect quotes, plus info on how to join the JaySteph discord server.
> 
> Fanfiction writers are thirsty vampires and comments are our lifeblood. 🧛🩸😁  
> (But if you are mean, we will cut a bitch. Cuz we are vampires rawr 🦇)
> 
> You can follow me on Tumblr as River9Noble. Come say hi!
> 
> And do check out my other stories - Lotsa Batman and JaySteph and rarepairs abound.


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